


give or take

by finalizer



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: M/M, but you cannot deny the way poe looks at finn :), you can say what you want
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-31
Updated: 2015-12-31
Packaged: 2018-05-10 04:51:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5571763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/finalizer/pseuds/finalizer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The stormtrooper maneuvers Poe into a hallway, then takes off his mask. Poe is pretty much smitten from there.<br/>Confused, of course, but smitten.</p>
            </blockquote>





	give or take

**Author's Note:**

> sort of a prequel/companion piece to [this](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5482967)

The stormtrooper maneuvers Poe into a hallway, then takes off his mask. Poe is pretty much smitten from there. Confused, of course, but smitten.

/

 _"I can fly anything,"_  Poe interrupts, insists, when he sees the stormtrooper growing anxious. The smile that breaks across the other man’s face gets Poe wondering what it says about him that he wouldn’t mind being on the receiving end of it more often.

/

He asks for his name, when they’re speeding away from the jaws of death, and is told a cluster of letters and numbers.

"That’s the only name they ever gave me."

"Well, I ain’t using it."

It’s sickening to imagine –- a number isn’t a name, those serving the First Order aren’t people, naught but mindless drones created to destroy.

 _FN_  -– add a vowel, sounds like Finn. He asks the stormtrooper if it’s alright to call him so. Finn agrees. With a pleased smile, Poe introduces himself.

/

Finn blasts one of their pursuers out of the sky, sending their flaming ship tumbling into blackness. He shouts in genuine excitement and Poe can’t help but smile, to assure Finn that yes, he saw him take the shot, and yes, it’d been impressive beyond compare.

/

There’s an echoing crack from the back of the fighter, a jarring crash and they’re hurtling towards oblivion. One moment Poe is struggling to regain control of the ship, the next there’s nothing.

/

He wakes to nothing as well. Wide expanse of desert –- no Finn, no wreckage, no sign of where he is and where they’d crashed.

Poe feels a lurch of grief in his gut and it puzzles him. Surely it makes little sense for him to mourn one he’d known for minutes at most, rescuer or not. He considers for a moment if, in another life, they could have been friends.

/

Poe gets back to base, back to the Resistance to resume his work, to collect the scraps of his mission gone wrong and find a way to locate BB-8 without the slightest clue of where to begin.

He catches his mind drifting off, once or twice, imagining Finn’s face, wondering if it’s too foolish to hope for him to still be alive, to wish that his own survival hadn’t meant Finn’s sacrifice.

/

The Resistance gets word of his droid having been spotted on Takodana. Poe leaps to his feet and hurries to the hangar before the General even takes initiative.

/

The First Order blows the castle to bits, the Resistance swooping in last minute to dish out some damage control. His team does a hell of a job; yet it seems almost futile in the face of all that’s happened.

/

BB-8 rolls towards him when he exits his starfighter and there’s a wave of relief filling the aching gap in his chest –-  _almost_ entirely. He kneels in front of his droid and listens, watches BB-8’s head turn to the side and motion at a figure standing at the far end of the landing field.

/

 _"Poe Dameron, you’re alive_ ," comes the disbelieving shout, and Poe can’t stop the endearment that escapes his lips as he runs forth, nor the warmth that spreads through him when they embrace. He’d dreamt about this one night, he remembers, and briefly catches himself wondering if it’s just as good or entirely better than he’d thought it’d be.

/

Finn asks, near frantic, what’d happened to him, and Poe almost laughs at the thought that Finn had been just as worried about him as he was about Finn.

/

Voice full of respect, admiration –-  _infatuation_ –- Poe goes on, "BB-8 says that you saved him," and Finn is quick to deny credit for the rescue, to belittle the part he’d played in the unfolding events.

"You completed my mission, Finn," he insists, to assure Finn he’d done well, that he’d bravely taken up Poe’s mantle when he’d fallen with no real obligation to do so; then trails off as he looks down and sees -– “that’s my jacket."

/

Poe bites his lip before anything truly regrettable escapes his big mouth. He’s not looking to scare Finn away, after all.

/

He can only imagine how overwhelming it is for Finn, how utterly confusing, to be met with this new world following a lifetime of conditioning.

"You’re a good man, Finn," he stresses, to make sure Finn knows how he sees him: not a mindless solider, but his own man, and a good one at that -– a great one.

It’s more satisfying than Poe had remembered, watching Finn’s face light up with a smile.

/

Poe can barely contain his glee when he introduces Finn to the General; the man he’d told her so much about, the one who’d sprung him from the First Order, rescued his droid and completed his task, _who’d plagued his dreams_ –-

–- that last part he blessedly manages to keep out of professional conversation.

/

Finn insists he go to the Order’s base himself, laying claims of his vast knowledge of its structure. But there’s a spark in his eyes, a spark Poe knows all too well, undeniable proof that Finn would put his life on the line to save Rey, that she’s his priority, first and foremost.

/

He clasps his friend’s shoulder as he passes him on the airfield, in a gesture meant to comfort Finn, but more so himself, a promise that they would both come out of this alive, that it would end better than the last time they’d risked everything.

/

Poe’s in the air with his team following close behind and he almost finds himself wishing he’d been more forward with his affection, made a point bigger than a casual pat on the shoulder.

But he doesn’t overthink it, and he doesn’t let his focus stray from the mission, because he knows they’ll both live to see one another again. And later, when they triumph, Poe knows he won’t hesitate to come forward to Finn, genuine honesty and whatever comes with it.

/

There’s a gut wrenching moment of horror, when he sees Finn’s body carried out of the ship, and he thinks it’s over.

Then the medics rush past, and Poe doesn’t hesitate to run towards them, to follow as Finn is wheeled away. He doesn’t care who notices.

/

Rey leaves and Poe knows he has to be the one to tell Finn when he wakes. He knows this, because he knows Finn has no other allies on the base, no other people he would dare call friends. It’s dizzying, Poe finds, how much he wants to compensate for the years of undeserved suffering Finn had been put through.

/

He doesn’t go a day without asking after Finn’s condition, making sure it’s stable -– he finds himself unable to sleep otherwise.

/

"They wouldn’t let me see you ‘til now," Poe says in a rush, without thinking, when he bursts into Finn’s room in the med bay, when visitors are finally allowed entry. " _You idiot_ , you almost got yourself killed."

Striding right up to the bed, bracing one hand on the side rail and leaning over Finn, he presses a chaste, determined kiss to his lips. It lingers, warm and inviting, then he pulls away. He’s not entirely sure why he does it, but he can’t bring himself to regret it, doesn’t bother blaming it on adrenaline.

/

He takes a step back and sinks into the lone chair at Finn’s bedside, exhales in utter relief.

"Sorry," he says. He’s not.

/

Finn doesn’t look appalled by the gesture. Instead, he smiles, big and bright, just the way he always did. Poe mirrors the expression.

/

"You think you could do that again?" Finn asks, not at all tentative, an hour or so later as Poe is hovering by the door, when it’s curfew and the med bay is getting locked down for the night.

Poe doesn’t hesitate to comply.

**Author's Note:**

> can you tell i've seen this movie 4 times already


End file.
